Mumbai, July 21: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed lower on Tuesday, dragged by selling in HDFC Bank for the second day alongside risk-off sentiment amid escalating West Asia crisis.
Falling for the second day, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 238.41 points, or 0.31 per cent, to settle at 77,470.11 with nine of its constituents closing lower and 21 with gains. During the day, it dropped 371.19 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 77,337.33.
The 50-share NSE Nifty dropped by 50.80 points, or 0.21 per cent, to end at 24,187.70.
Escalating US-Iran conflict, uptick in crude oil prices and persistent foreign fund outflows reinforced a risk-off sentiment in stock markets, experts said.
From the Sensex pack, HDFC Bank declined for the second day, down 2 per cent, after the lender’s quarterly earnings disappointed on the margin front.
Among others, Reliance Industries dropped 1.48 per cent, State Bank of India by 1.48 per cent, Tata Consultancy Services by 1.32 per cent, Infosys by 1.24 per cent and Trent by 1.1 per cent.
On the other hand, Bajaj Finserv emerged as the biggest gainer, rising by 2.07 per cent. InterGlobe Aviation, UltraTech Cement, HCL Tech, Mahindra & Mahindra and Titan were also among the winners.
Among sectors, PSU Bank declined by 0.82 per cent, followed by Focused IT (0.68 per cent), IT (0.66 per cent), Top 10 Banks (0.52 per cent), Energy (0.44 per cent) and Financial Services (0.22 per cent). Among gainers, MidSmall Private Banks Quality Tilt surged 2.94 per cent, Realty jumped 1.08 per cent, Commodities (0.98 per cent), Telecommunication (0.97 per cent), Auto (0.88 per cent) and Services (0.45 per cent).
Broader markets maintained their positive bias, with the BSE MidCap Select index going up by 0.20 per cent and the SmallCap Select index edging higher by 0.16 per cent.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,121.04 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, climbed 0.66 per cent to USD 90.03 per barrel.
World shares mostly gained and US futures advanced on Tuesday, with markets trading higher in South Korea and Japan led by technology shares after recent declines due to heavy selling of stocks linked to artificial intelligence.
Oil prices rose again as the situation remained volatile in the escalated conflict between the US and Iran.
In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.2p er cent higher to 10,544.36 as new Prime Minister Andy Burnham was hosting his first Cabinet meeting. France’s CAC 40 was up 0.1 per cent to 8,351.93, and Germany’s DAX rose 0.3 per cent to 24,911.48.
In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi, which is heavily reliant on AI and chipmaking-related shares, jumped 3.6 per cent to 6,747.95. It fell 4.5 per cent a day earlier. Samsung Electronics rose 6.2 per cent, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix gained 4.1 per cent.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 added 3.3 per cent to 66,232.19 after a holiday on Monday, recovering from some of its losses from last week.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged less than 0.1 per cent lower to 25,132.29. Chinese AI startup Zhipu, or Z.ai, surged 36.9 per cent following reports about its new data centre that is powered only by domestic chips, while another Chinese AI startup MiniMax jumped 15.2 per cent. The Shanghai Composite index added 1.8 per cent to 3,864.37.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed less than 0.1 per cent to 8,793.30.On Monday, the Sensex declined 442.93 points, or 0.57 per cent, to settle at 77,708.52. The Nifty edged lower by 95.80 points, or 0.39 per cent, to end at 24,238.50.
On Monday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 slipped 0.2 per cent to 7,443.28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.6 per cent to 51,839.26, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dipped less than 0.1 per cent to 25,508.07. (PTI)
